Red Sox beat Yankees for division lead

David Ortiz hit one of Boston’s three home runs Wednesday as the Red Sox continued their 2011 dominance of the New York Yankees with an 11-6 victory that put Boston atop the American League East division.

Carl Crawford and J.D. Drew also connected, both in the ninth inning. Jacoby Ellsbury had three hits and Adrian Gonzalez added two RBIs for Boston. Facing his most familiar foe in Boston hurler Tim Wakefield, Yankees icon Derek Jeter finished 1 for 5 to move within 11 hits of 3,000 for his career.

Jeter had a run-scoring double but also grounded into a rally-killing double play.

Alex Rodriguez homered in the fourth, but the injury-hit Yankees have lost seven of eight meetings with their old rivals this season, including all five at home. The last time the Red Sox won their first five road games against the Yankees in a season was 1912, on the way to a World Series title.

They won three in a row at Yankee Stadium May 13-15.

“We play these guys so much. If you don’t play well they’re going to beat you,” Jeter said. “They’ve outplayed us. They have a good team. The bottom line is they can hit and they can pitch. They can do a little bit of everything.”

The bad news started for New York even before the game as they announced that pitcher Joba Chamberlain is expected to miss at least three weeks with a strained muscle in his right arm.

I’M HOME: New York Yankees short stop Derek Jeter (L) misses a catch as Boston Red Sox’s Jacoby Ellsbury (R) steals second base during the first inning of American League MLB baseball action at Yankee Stadium in New York

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